Redistricting report roils Calif. politics

News stories on redistricting are often read by only the most devout political junkies — but one report on the once-in-a-decade process has torn through the Internet and set the political class aflame.

The article that started the uproar is a revealing, behind-the-curtain look at California’s line-drawing process, which for the first time was undertaken by an independent Citizens Redistricting Commission. The report, published last week on ProPublica, a New York City-based nonprofit investigative outlet, alleged that Democrats sought to systematically game the newly implemented commission. Drawing on dozens of internal emails and documents, the story reported that Democrats at the highest levels plotted and executed a secret plan to place witnesses before the commission to persuade them to draw a map that is expected to land Democrats several seats in 2012.

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Democrats have pushed back forcefully. On the state’s influential liberal blogs, the piece has turned into a piñata, with some critics arguing that ProPublica reporters Olga Pierce and Jeff Larson failed to recognize that the final map favored Democrats simply because of population shifts over the past decade rather than any malevolent effort to manipulate the process. Others have argued that the authors misunderstood the design of the commission — though it was composed of panelists who were independent from the politicians who had controlled the state’s redistricting for so many years, it never disallowed lobbying from outside political interests.

“ProPublica knew nothing about California’s demography or politics, and produced a ridiculous article either out of gullibility or conspiracy,” Robert Cruickshank, a party activist, wrote on the liberal Calitics blog. “In the end it doesn’t matter which one it was. Their article should be laughed out of the room and ProPublica shouldn’t be taken seriously again, at least not until they retract that article.”

California Democratic Party Chairman John Burton, a longtime power broker in the state known for his salty language, called the article, simply, “bull——.”

For Democrats, the fierce pushback underscores the high stakes surrounding the state’s new map. California Republicans had already launched a referendum drive to overturn the commission-drawn state Senate plan before the article was published — and Democrats worry the story will fuel public doubts about the commission’s work and aid Republicans who want to paint the line-drawing as compromised. In the article’s aftermath, Thomas Del Beccaro, California Republican Party chairman, said the commission’s maps should be thrown out entirely.

“There’s this demonization of this from the Republican side because they are pushing for a referendum,” said Paul Mitchell, a Democratic redistricting consultant whose work on behalf of the party ProPublica detailed. “People are seeing a $1 million campaign built off this story. Democrats have a vested interest in deflating it, and Republicans have a vested interest in inflating it.”

The story offers a stunning inside view of how redistricting — a notoriously secretive process — works. In reporting their story, Pierce and Larson gained access to a trove of internal party emails — many of them sent from Alexis Marks, deputy director of the state’s Democratic delegation, to members. In one email, Marks exhorts the lawmakers to “Never say anything AT ALL about redistricting — no speculation, no predictions, NOTHING,” and reminding, “Anything can come back to haunt you.” In another message, Marks discusses efforts to “get info out” about candidates seeking to become the commission’s attorney who would be detrimental to the party’s interests.

Stephen Engelberg, ProPublica’s managing editor, said he was surprised by the outpouring of interest the story had generated. Redistricting, a topic popular among those who closely follow politics, doesn’t necessarily attract a broad-based audience, he acknowledged.